French Parliament Approves Same-Sex Marriage

In France yesterday, the lower house of Parliament, the National Assembly, by a vote of 331-225, approved a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. The bill was approved by the Senate earlier this month. Legifrance has links to the text of the bill, reports and legislative votes (all in French). As reported by CNN and the New York Times, a group of senators have filed a challenge with the Constitutional Council, which has a month to rule on the law's constitutionality.  It is expected that the bill will be upheld and that President François Hollande will sign it in time for the first same-sex marriages to take place this summer. If finally approved, France will be the ninth European country to permit same-sex marriage. The others are Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. (Background.)